Tehran is a city both forged and forgotten by modernity. The ever-present hum of traffic, the continuous movement of people, the breathing of heavy, combusted air. Not only the mobile vehicles, but solidified infrastructures, pavements, highway exits, footbridges and construction sites – as well as the human adaptations and appropriations of space around them – seem to find varied, intermixed, negotiated ways of co- existence. In the mixture, the Chaloos Road, an engineering triumph, a motorway carved through the mountains escaping out of Tehran to the Caspian Sea, turns into an umbilical extension of urban life. Extracted from the earth itself, bitumen is rolled everywhere as the surface for modernity, offered as crude cure for the city’s mobility.
Exhibition as Editing Excercise by Nader Koochaki, is a special project created for the Magic of Persia Contemporary Art Prize (MOP CAP) 2015 winner’s exhibition.
Constructed around a discussion with Iranian architect and urban planner Mohammed Reza Haeri, the project documents and brings to display the work-in-progress, the past and on-going accumulation of research for Nader Koochaki’s Asphalt Roll – charting the urban practices and contemporary movements of Tehran and its adjacent geographies. In this context, Exhibition as Editing Exercise studies and further speculates with an editorial process as a platform for artistic research and dissemination, where travels, events, discourses and observations presented as displays of photography, gathered objects and artefacts are shown in the process of entering and leaving the pages of a book, hovering between the representational space of the display and the peripheral space beyond the cropmarks.
As the editorial space crosses borders with the exhibition, occupying the floors of the gallery, it also knowingly allows the public to enter into its editorial frame. Thus, the following outcome, Exhibition as Editing Exercise as a book, brings into focus the dualities and breadth of artistic research as a constellation of work that often finds itself beyond conventional or conclusive formats and timelines.
FOUNDATION
We are pleased to announce that MOPCAP 2015 Winner Nader Koochaki is currently completing his three-month residency at the Delfina Foundation in London as part of his prize. This unique opportunity has been accompanied by a year-long mentorship with curator Mika Savela and will result in a solo exhibition at the Sophia Contemporary Gallery and a publication to be launched at the Delfina Foundation.
NADER KOOCHAKI
Informed by a background in Sociology, Nader Koochaki’s (Spain/Iran) practice has been characterized by the intention to develop a language to overcome the restrictions and obligations of academia. Much of his work consists of research lines that combine field work and the archival.
He has studied some phenomena that verge on the border between culture and nature, such as caves, shepherding, hunting and seagull’s habitats. He is also working in the field of photography with the attempt to think about the medium itself. That is the case of Open Sky (2009-..), or Asphalt Roll (2015-…), two working lines that deal with the photographic language. Among others, his work has included video-installations (XXXXX, 2012), (Scènes, 2012); sound archives (Dorsal Landscape, 2009-2015), performance and happenings (Intervention in the Agora, 2005) (Closed Circuits, 2013) (Fluids, 2014) and photographic series (Huntinglines, 2010-…) (Mining Tableau, 2012-…) etc.
Nader graduated in Sociology from the University of the Basque Country (2006). Exhibitions have included displays at the following locations: Arteleku in Donostia-San Sebastian, Archive of the Historical Province of Araba-Alava, Cristina Enea Foundation in Donostia-San Sebastian, Bizkaia Aretoa Building in Bilbao, Arts Centre of Egia, Media Library of Miarritze- Biarritz, Basque Museum of Bayonne, Club Le Larraskito in Bilbao, Antoni Tàpies Foundation of Barcelona, Artium Museoa in Vitoria-Gasteiz, MOP in Dubai, Edge of Arabia gallery in London, Tabakalera in Donostia-San Sebastian, and Igartubeiti Farm Museum in Ezkio-Itsaso.
MIKA SAVELA
Mika Savela is an architect, designer, writer, researcher and curator. He is a graduate of the Aalto University in Finland and has practiced in the fields of urban design and architecture, as well as more cross-disciplinary forms of design, editing, publishing and curating. His practice often balances between visual culture, architectural and urban concepts – the off-context, representation, and approaches between the historical and the modern. He has written for several juried publications as well as independent creative platforms on urbanism, visual culture, modernity and the globalized condition. He is a co-founder of Selim Projects, a Helsinki-based contemporary platform for editorial / curatorial / cultural / visual / spatial projects. Recently he completed his PhD at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK), looking into the relationship between curatorial discourses and the contemporary and historical narratives of China’s urbanization. Currently, he teaches at Aalto University’s School of Arts, Design and Architecture, and is appointed as a Mellon Researcher 2016-17 at the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA).
MOPCAP
The Magic of Persia Contemporary Art Prize (MOP CAP) is a worldwide search for the next generation of contemporary Iranian visual artists who have the potential to make a significant impact in their field. The goal of the prize is to provide an opportunity for emerging artists to gain international exposure, and to engage in artistic experimentation and cultural exchange. Through its archival material, including an online artist database and printed publications, MOP CAP aims to provide an educational interchange and contribute to the development of Iranian art and culture. The MOP CAP Winner receives a one-year mentorship with a curator, resulting in a solo-project at a leading gallery space in London; as well as a three-month residency at the Delfina Foundation.
The MOPCAP 2015 Winner’s Award has been generously sponsored by MHA London.
The exhibition space has been generously donated by the Sophia Contemporary Gallery.
The artist residency and publication launch is in collaboration with the Delfina Foundation.
